SHOT Show opens amid cries for more gun control

Pitcher looked at my media badge and realized I lived in a state that has some of the toughest gun control laws in the country.

“You have it tough there in California,” Pitcher said. “They outlawed .50-caliber, so we modified our guns and now call them 50 DTC, a legal caliber that’s called a .50, but it’s not. There’s a minute difference. It just looks like a 50-caliber rifle.

Pitcher said that since California limits guns to 10 bullets in a clip, all semi-automatic rifles sent to California only have capability to hold 10 bullets.

“The clip is put in the gun in such a way that it can’t be removed,” Pitcher said.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is pushing for a seven-bullet limit. Bloomberg has taken on the National Rifle Association and the Republican party to the extent that he has successfully helped fund Democrats who beat strong NRA-backed candidates in elections. California Sen. Dianne Feinstein is proposing sweeping changes to gun laws in a state that leads the nation in gun control. She’s targeting semi-automatic modern sporting rifles, or assault rifles, in the liberal lexicon.

Part of the confusion surrounding guns is that cities and states make their own gun laws. They can be tougher than federal laws, but not less stringent, according to Michael Campbell of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

Campbell said automatic machine guns made after May 19, 1986 are illegal for regular citizens (not military or law enforcement) in the country. He said the federal gun laws deal with “automatic machine guns, silencers and destructive devices